Entrepreneurship Biography

My name is Naaman Mwale born and raised in Matero Township, Lusaka Zambia in 1992. Both my parents were in the real estate business, I studied accountancy up to diploma level and left school, it was at this time when I started listing to Robert Kiyosaki audiobooks and got inspired and started writing business plans and eventually started my own business although my parents wanted me to be in formal employment opposed to doing business.

At the age of 21, I established a trading business in 2015 in Lusaka. I first traded as Manita General Suppliers then I, later, grew and incorporate into a trading limited company Ranita Trading Limited in 2018.

I first got my first job as Junior Accountant in a local trading company with a sole plan to raise capital for my first supplying business in Lusaka, as a junior staff I use to earn USD$3,000.00 per annum, and during my employment, I learned quite a lot the art of trading, including finance, management, and distributorship I also attended several other workshops and professional development conferences in financial management, business administration and leadership entrepreneurship, communication, MSMEs, and organization. In my second year of employment, I managed to rise USD$1,058.00 and later resigned and ventured into live foreign currency trading (Forex).

During my first days of trading in forex, I lost about USD$882.00 which was about 83% of my savings and Investment due to the adverse market currency fluctuation I was extremely frustrated, and I shared this with my elder sister she encouraged me and advised me to go back to formal employment, I sojourned on and continued trading in small volumes and gradually became a professional trader doubling the amount in a single trade. I late slow down on forex trading and investing in a supplying business supplying foodstuffs i.e., rice, cooking oil, beans, salt, and sugar to boarding schools both primary and secondary schools by then I use to trade as Manita General Suppliers a registered enterprise.

With the little experience, I acquired during my first employment in trading particularly in supplying commodities I incorporated Manita General Suppliers a registered enterprise into a limited company called Ranita Trading Limited and ventured into outsourcing empty transparent PPP woven bags which I use to import from Malawi in a city called Blantyre and supply the goods in Zambia to beef production companies using the capital I raised and saved up from the proceeds I realized from trading foreign exchange (forex).

In my early days of business, I won and entered into a supplying contract with one of the biggest meat supplies in Zambia a contract worth USD$7,800.00 to supply 52,000 transparent PPP woven empty bags, I then ordered the bags based on the customer specification from a Malawi manufacturing company, unfortunately, the manufacturing period took long exceeding the delivery period leading to the cancellation of the contract with my client due to the breach of contract on the delivery period I lost about USD$4,600.00 in ordering, transportation and importation costs, the goods arrived in Zambia thirty days after the contractual delivery period expired the goods were rejected by the client and I was unable to resale the goods elsewhere as they were specifically made for the client but being an ambitious young person I never gave up I said to myself like in any other business there is always a rainy day.

I gathered courage and went on and got a personal bank loan from a commercial bank worth $5,600.00 and reinvested into the business of outsourcing construction cement from a manufacturer Lafage Zambia Plc under a distributorship agreement with the company, I started supplying cement to construction companies I first supplied a small quality of 600 bags about 30 tonners that were my first consignment and become one of the major distributors of the commodity. Among my clients are various private institutions ranging from mining, construction, government departments, and ministries in Zambia.

In 2020 I listed in the Zimbabwean best-selling business magazine called Billions as the best start-up entrepreneur.

I am not like other Zambian entrepreneurs who keep money in the bank, I intend to take a calculated risk and not keep cash at the bank, I make full investments wherever an opportunity arises, and always continued investing, I have created over 50 jobs at the age of 27 in my trading and construction company both on a contractual and permanent basis engagement and my company is certified by the National Workers Compensation Fund Control Board and the National Pension Scheme Authority in Zambia for the benefit of my employees, I have diversified into civil construction (roads and earthworks, building and housing) with the certification by the National Construction Council (NCC), and in compliance with the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) in Zambia, the company has quickly reached a fairly market share and become profitable and doing several social corporate responsibilities in health cares and orphanages in transforming life’s in Zambia.

Naaman Mwale is a Zambian and the CEO of Ranita Trading Limited.